Former London’s Burning star John Alford’s career was in tatters for a second time today after he was convicted of having sex with a drunk 14-year-old girl at a house party.
The 53-year-old – who was also found guilty of sexually assaulting the teenager’s 15-year-old friend on the same night – was previously ‘blacklisted’ after he was convicted of supplying drugs in a downmarket tabloid sting.
He returned to acting after a period working as a scaffolder and minicab driver but the latest scandal is likely to end his career once and for all.
Alford, who began acting aged nine and first came to prominence in Grange Hill, was found guilty of all six charges he faces by a 10-2 majority.
He slumped in the dock with his head in his hands and shook his head as the verdicts were returned after the jury had deliberated for more than 13 hours over three days.
He was also heard saying: ‘Wrong, I didn’t do this.’
There were gasps from members of his family in the public gallery as he learned his fate.
The actor, who was charged under his real name of John Shannon, spent the night out at a pub with the father of a third girl on April 8, 2022.
He was left alone with his victims in the early hours of the morning after other people at the property went to bed.
Alford, who was charged under his real name of John Shannon, pictured arriving last week for his trial at St Albans Crown Court in Hertfordshire
The actor briefly left the property to visit a nearby petrol station where he bought a bottle of vodka.
When he returned, he asked the 14-year-old girl to sit on his lap after going into the garden for a cigarette and started to kiss and touch her before having sex with her.
Later in the evening, Alford had sex with the girl for a second time in a downstairs toilet after pulling her onto him.
The actor sexually assaulted the older girl while sitting between his two victims at one point, St Albans Crown Court heard at the start of the trial last week.
Police received a report from the 15-year-old girl’s mother two days later and the defendant was arrested the following day after both girls were interviewed.
The younger alleged victim, now aged 18, was tearful as she gave evidence in front of a busy public gallery last week.
She told jurors she and the second alleged victim were good friends and another friend had invited them to her house in Hertfordshire for the evening, with both planning to stay the night.
The woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, said the alleged incident in the garden with Alford lasted ‘no longer than 10 minutes’, while the second incident in the downstairs bathroom lasted five minutes.
Former London’s Burning star Alford was convicted six charges involving alleged sexual activity with two underage girls
Houzla Rawat, defending Alford, suggested she was being ‘physically friendly’ towards the defendant throughout the evening. She replied: ‘I disagree.’
The victim also denied following Alford into the garden after he went out to have a cigarette.
Asked by prosecutor Julie Whitby why she went along with what Alford told her, she said: ‘Most children, if an adult is telling you to do something, you’ll do it … especially if you are drunk or impaired.’
In a video of her police interview played to the court, said revealed she had never had sex before.
‘I told him to stop because I didn’t want to have sex with an old man,’ she said.
The 15-year-old told officers during her interview how ‘we were all just like dozing off… that was when John started to touch me’. It made her feel ‘absolutely sick’, she added.
She said she immediately showered after being dropped off at the other complainant’s house later that day as she was ‘stressing out’.
Both went into the bathroom together and ‘spoke about everything that happened’, she added.
Alford (left) as Robbie and George Christopher (right) as Ziggy in Grange Hill
Jurors heard that the girls didn’t mention the alleged assaults immediately after they happened as they had been drinking ‘a fair amount of vodka’.
But the older girl finally revealed the abuse while visiting a different friend’s home on April 11.
‘I had a mental breakdown to my best mate’s mum in the garden and she called my mum. (I was) crying, screaming, very sad,’ she said.
Alford angrily denied touching either girl during his police interview, saying: ‘None of this makes sense.
‘It’s a set-up. I didn’t rape anyone. I am not a nonce. This is f****** scandalous.’
He claimed he had been outside when the then 14-year-old was suddenly ‘sitting on my lap with her arms around me, trying to kiss me. I recoiled, I stood up… I literally had to prize her off’.
He added: ‘It was quite obvious that she was very drunk and being flirtatious.
‘I did not reciprocate in any way, shape or form at any time.’
The actor was best known for his role as fireman Billy Ray in ITV firefighting drama London’s Burning
Crying while giving evidence in court, he told jurors he ‘never touched either of them girls’, adding there was ‘no DNA’ evidence and he would stand by his denial ‘until the day I die’.
Alford suggested he was the victim of a blackmail plot and described a phone call he received on April 10, 2022, from ‘an Irish-sounding traveller-type voice’.
‘He said: ‘Is that John? Do yourself a favour and come to Broxbourne car park, Hoddesdon,’ the defendant said.
‘I said something stupid like “I’m with my children”. Then he said to bring the money and I said to f*** off.”
The actor said he told police that they were ‘going to extort money from me’.
But the jury heard there was no material supporting these claims on the defendant’s phone or those of his young victims.
Ms Whitby also told the court: ‘Mr Shannon was in no doubt both the girls were under 16.’
Alford had denied six charges, including two of engaging in non-penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged under 16 and two of engaging in penetrative activity with a girl under 16.
Alford also had parts in other programmes – seen here in a bit-part role on The Bill as Steve Weller opposite Rene Zagger
The other offences he denied were assaulting a female aged 13 or over by penetration with part of body and sexual assault on a female.
The trial was originally meant to be heard in December but was postponed when Alford collapsed the day before it was due to start and sought treatment, initially at a hospital near his home in Holloway, north London.
The Glasgow-born actor briefly appeared in ITV sitcom Now and Then before making his name playing Robbie Wright in BBC school drama Grange Hill in 1985, when he was 13 years old.
He landed the role after training at Anna Scher Theatre performing arts school in north London alongside Sid Owen and Patsy Palmer, who both appeared in EastEnders.
But he ended up in another popular role as fireman Billy Ray in ITV’s London’s Burning for five years from 1993.
The father-of-two starred on the show at the height of its popularity when it pulled in more than 18million viewers a night.
The show became ITV’s third longest-running drama behind only Coronation Street and Emmerdale.
Alford also had chart success, with several top 40 singles produced by Stock/Waterman, with his debut release, Smoke In Your Eyes, reaching number 13. Blue Moon/Only You later reached the top ten.
Alford had a short-lived pop career, with three singles in the UK Top 40 in 1996
His career was derailed after he was jailed for nine months when he supplied cocaine and cannabis to former News of the World journalist Mazher Mahmood, who was known as the ‘fake sheikh’.
Asked in court by Mr Rawat about the 1999 trial, he said: ‘I defended myself, which probably wasn’t the cleverest thing to do at the time.’
He said he had been ‘blacklisted’ after the conviction, although he later received a payment of £500,000 from the now defunct newspaper in relation to allegations that his phone had been hacked.
Discussing the impact on his mental health and drinking, Alford added: ‘It had quite a detrimental impact on my mental health and my outlook, trust, paranoia.
‘A bottle of scotch always covers your back, doesn’t it?’
Alford described himself as a ‘weekly binger’ in terms of his drinking at the time of the allegations, adding: ‘I’m an arsehole when I’m drunk to be honest with you.’
Jurors were told that he suffers from mental health issues, including ‘anxiety, depression and paranoia’ and uses a hearing aid.
Despite the setback after the drugs bust, Alford returned to acting in the early 2000s and appeared in the film Mike Bassett: England Manager and reality programme Trust Me – I’m a Beauty Therapist in 2001 and 2003.
He also had parts in Casualty and played a prison guard in 2017 British movie The Hatton Garden Job.
The sentencing date is yet to be set.